Our 2001 trip defined us as travellers ...
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2000
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2001
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2002
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In China it’s not hard to get off the beaten track - desite throngs of Chinese tourists - because everywhere we went our fair complexions, big noses and round eyes made us stand out from the crowd, and plunged us into unusual experiences.
We joined a Taiwanese tour group for our trip up the Yangtze and then a Chinese group for a trip out to Jiuzhaigou National Park – and it was these two groups of people who took us under their wings, and taught us so much about Chinese people.
From the beauty of Jiuzhaigou through to the Silk Road we were on the biggest travel high ever – where our cheeks ached from smiling and we couldn’t believe that this was really happening to us. Each day was a new miracle and we felt blessed to be on this earth.
We followed the ancient Silk road from Urumqi over to Almaty in Kazakstan where we got news of September 11. Despite some warnings from home we pressed on with our planned route through Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. It was a fascinating place to be post9/11, both to hear Muslim people’s perspective and to be free of the enormous media coverage that was happening at home. At one stage we were 300 miles as the crow flies from Mazar-el-sharif which just weeks later was heavily bombed by the US.
They are people just like us.
Getting directions, Lanzhou.
Spelunking, Vang Vieng, Laos.
"Whats Spelunking?"
Hmmm... Good question!
Instead – a flight to Kunming and then down to Laos – which has to be one of our favourite countries… ever
Our combi got a flat tyre near a Tibetan herder camp
Copyright 2004, Ariana Svenson